‘Our mission is to become a European-focused company’: Watsoft CEO and co-founder
Oleg Bivol discusses the VAD’s expanding partner base, return to growth, and future Iberian acquisitions
Based near Bordeaux, France’s point of entry to the Atlantic, Watsoft is a VAD founded in 2000 by Oleg Bivol, the current CEO, and Stéphane Bec, the firm’s CTO.
Since its launch, the company has always worked indirectly with resellers, integrators, and MSPs, Bivol tells CRN.
Its mission? To select reliable and innovative solutions for the French market in areas such as security, backup, monitoring, messaging, telephony, and cloud storage.
In terms of organic growth, the company is to reach €11m (£9.55m) this year, a number which has been stable since the start of the war in Ukraine.
“We faced some difficulties due to geopolitical events, particularly because one of our long-time vendors, Kaspersky, is a Russian company,” explains Bivol.
“We expect to return to growth next year,” he adds.
The company also has an investor, Generis Capital, since 2022 to support its development.
This return to growth, explains the CEO, will come through a rethinking of its relationships with partners and its quest for innovative solutions, especially from the UK and US.
It also increasingly favours European vendors for reasons of data sovereignty and GDPR compliance.
“We’ve adapted our information system to this subscription-based economy, and we’re constantly seeking new, innovative solutions, especially from the UK and US, though we increasingly favour European vendors for reasons of data sovereignty and GDPR compliance.”
The distie leader also intends to develop the company through buyouts, especially in the Iberian Peninsula.
“Our goal is to continue our steady growth, and we’re also considering expansion into the Iberian market, particularly Spain and Portugal, possibly through acquisitions.
“Acquisitions are the simplest route. We haven’t done much of that before, but now it’s clearly part of our growth strategy.
“That’s also why our investor, who joined in 2022, is helping us prepare for that type of growth.
“Our mission is to select, distribute, and support innovative software publishers, consolidate our growth, and become a more European-focused company, starting with the Iberian Peninsula.”
The company also has some presence in French-speaking Africa, where is educational is reportedly widely viewed, even though it doesn’t do direct business there yet.
In the last two decades, the company has spread its tentacles across the French channel and today works with 3,600 partners, about half of which are MSPs, with the other half in transition, the leader explains.
“We support our partners, resellers, and MSPs, in their transition to managed services, providing a full range of value-added services including technical support, training, webinars, marketing, and consulting.”
Locations, customers, and workforce
The VAD’s operations cover all of France, particularly Paris and its surroundings, “where most large companies are headquartered.”
While being based in Bordeaux, the organisation has remote employees across the country, such as Paris, Lyon, and northern France.
“We employ around 30 people, roughly half in sales, and the rest in marketing, support, training, and software development,” explains Bivol.
“We’ve internalised the development of our partner marketplace, which automates processes and integrates data between vendors and partners’ accounting systems.”
To educate and evangelise IT companies into MSPs, Watsoft also has a YouTube channel with over 600 videos to present its solutions from both technical and commercial angles.
“France is a country of small businesses, often led by entrepreneurs deeply involved in daily operations, so part of our job is to help them take a step back and see how managed services can help them grow,” he highlights.
To respond to its customers’ demands, Bivol says the firm adapts its workforce continuously, mainly through natural turnover.
“Young professionals today are less attached to a single company, so we have to work harder to attract them.”
Watsoft also needs people who bring new skills to the organisation, as “AI can’t run itself, it still needs people to implement and manage it.”
“As vendors change strategies, we adapt our teams accordingly.”
Evolving portfolio in the face of technological and societal changes
In addition to the controversial Kaspersky, Watsoft collaborates with around 15 software vendors, such as Altaro, Hortnersecurity, Acronis, Wasabi, Riot, Blackfog, and Ermetix, among others, in an effort to offer a complete range of hybrid and cloud solutions.
“We started with on-premises solutions, moved gradually to hybrid offerings, and now almost all our solutions are available in the cloud,” Bivol tells CRN.
The VAD is still evolving its portfolio, and is currently focusing on solutions related to cybersecurity, data storage, and AI, as the CEO sees these as driving the most growth.
“We maintain a proactive relationship with our vendors, some of them hesitate to take certain steps, so we share insights from other markets to help them understand local expectations,” he adds.
He also considers AI to be the technology that will be driving the most changes moving forward and sees its adoption as crucial.
“Companies that fail to adopt [AI] will quickly fall behind, because this is the fastest and most transformative shift our industry has ever seen.
“It will redefine software design, development speed, and pricing models.
“Even small businesses will soon be able to create applications on demand, which raises questions about the future but brings enormous efficiency gains in the short term.
“AI will also disrupt jobs, particularly repetitive ones, so expertise will shift toward integration, data optimisation, and consultancy.”
Bivol adds that geopolitical shifts are also driving changes in clients’ needs, who now ask for more European and French solutions.
But these demands often reach a wall, as such solutions aren’t always available or competitively priced, adds the company’s founder, as US vendors often benefit from more mature ecosystems and financing.
“We’ve learned to offer multiple options, usually two or three solutions per need, to stay flexible while maintaining our technical expertise.
“A distributor that doesn’t add value doesn’t last long, so we constantly reinvent ourselves through innovation in both technology and go-to-market approaches.”